In what could very possibly be a first for Austin’s most famous drinking mecca, a new, entirely nonalcoholic bar has opened on Sixth Street. Taano House, a trailer parked at 1109 E. Sixth, sells drinks made of psychoactive botanicals seven days a week.
Chatting at the NA bar’s quaint but shady seating area during its Aug. 15 grand opening, co-owners Geoff Smith and Joe West told the Chronicle they wanted to create drinks that promote relaxation, euphoria, and sociability the same way alcohol does, but without its negative health effects. The two launched their business, Taano Elevated Beverages, earlier this year, and opened the truck after months of pop-up events.
Taano House drinks utilize Amanita muscaria, blue lotus, kanna, and kava. The first plant – a fungus the owners describe as dreamy, relaxing, and mind expanding – essentially acts as a mushroom microdose, while blue lotus, a water lily, produces euphoric feelings. They refer to kanna, a succulent, as “herbal MDMA” due to its blissful quality, and say kava is best for increasing sociability.
Liquid extracts of those plants go into four different mixed drinks, which are all spins on classic cocktails: the Egyptian Mule, which pairs blue lotus with ginger beer and lime juice; the Kava-Rita, an orange juice-foward take on a margarita; the Molly Martini, an espresso martini featuring that “herbal MDMA”; and the Wonderland Colada, a piña colada featuring the magic mushroom. The bar asks for $10 for a single and $14 for a double.
As a lover of sweet drinks, I much preferred the Egyptian Mule to the Kava-Rita; strong pours of ginger beer and lime juice proved better at masking the flavor of the blue lotus, while the margarita, served with fresh orange and lime juice rather than triple sec, really left the bitter, grassy notes of the kava (which the bar also sells straight up, like a green juice, for $10) out in the open.
Elsewhere on the menu, a glass of “mushroom wine,” which pairs Amanita muscaria with NA brand Oddbird, goes for $12. West perks up when describing the bar’s “Real Green Tea Shot,” an $8 concoction featuring kanna, green tea, lemon juice, peach syrup, and green spirulina.
“Green tea shots are just immensely popular,” West explains. “My thought process was like, ‘Why are we calling it a green tea shot when there’s actual green tea that would taste delicious?’”
Despite the rise of THC seltzers, cannabis is noticeably absent from the Taano House menu. Neither of the owners are big fans; West says he’s never experienced the euphoria or relaxation from weed that stoners tout, while UT-Austin professor Smith likens the experience of being high to being “like a blob.” Instead, the team hopes the Taano House drinks offer folks different approaches to loosening up.
“I think a lot of the mythology of cannabis is getting sort of tethered to a couch,” West says. ”Some people, for socializing, want things that are more up, some want more down, some want more in between, and we’re trying to create real options for that.”
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